Jim McCleary, MA

Jim began his counseling career as a formally trained lay counselor in the 1980′s.  Today he specializes in relationship counseling, parent/child issues, healthy heterosexuality, stress, relief from anxiety, depression, and post traumatic traumas, codependency, and addictions. Jim strongly believes in the brief therapy counseling model which is designed to bring quick relief for relationships involving reasonably healthy individuals.  He offers long-form counseling directed toward recovery from adult and childhood family of origin wounding after a healthy therapeutic relationship with healing successes has been established between himself and a client or clients. Jim’s passion for counseling results from a lifetime of dealing with codependency, stress, family issues, divorce, and family addictions. Forced to learn about these subjects as a consequence of his own family and poor decisions he made due to his codependency, he chose to found Cottage Counselors to provide a new vision for those seeking relationship counseling.

Jim has personally experienced expensive and marginal at best counseling from counselors trapped in their own unresolved issues or in theories rather than reality.  These counselors were often motivated by ego gratification or the steady income provided by long-term counseling engagements rather than immediate help.  Jim designed Cottage Counselors to avoid those issues by operating with low overhead, a staff of specialized, life-experienced professionals who personally understand relational healing and provide value in counseling along with attractive client rates. 

Jim has four living children and a deceased daughter who passed away in 1992 at the age of six.  Jim’s community service experiences at Teen Challenge, Big Brothers, Genesis II for Families, and North Heights Church have provided him with firsthand experience with the broad range of issues facing families in today’s complex and stressful world.  Jim is also a veteran who enjoys working with veteran families.

Jim graduated from Adler Graduate School with Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy. He previously earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Minnesota and a Masters in Business Administration from St. Thomas University.  In business career Jim was a high technology entrepreneur real estate investor.

Jim is also an Associate at the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the American Psychological Association (APA).

Jim’s direct contact number is 1-855-456-8567